Come on guys Melo just has heavy bones :teeth:
Honestly though, we mixed apples with bananas and grapefruits and that'S why we didn't build a championship team.
We started off in July 2010 with D'Antoni as HC and signed 'his' player in Amar'e Stoudemire.
Then we traded half our roster including a decent point guard named Raymond Felton for Melo, a guy who never played well under D'Antoni and in combination with Stoudemire.
Then we sign a third near max. contract guy in Tyson Chandler this fall, instead of a much needed PG like Chris Paul or Deron Williams in an attempt to make Amar'e and Melo work.
D'Antoni gets fired and Amar'e gets injured and all of a sudden Melo looks like the old Melo, the real Melo. Chandler has been fantastic all season, but he'S just not a scorer and has zero post moves. We drastically improved on defense thanks to him, but our offense actually further declined, because the spacing is even worse now when all 3 are on the court.
What I'm saying is: We started with a run and gun, no defense HC and signed an athletic pick and roll PF, probably the best in the league in that regard. Unfortunately we didn't sign an MVP type PG like Paul, Nash, Rose to complement Amar'e. Instead we traded away our starting 5, bar Amar'e, for a player who is very good, but a misfit in D'Antoni's system and not a good compliment to Amar'es game.
D'Antoni gets fired and Woodson does a good job, Melo comes alive, but all of a sudden Amar'e struggles, because the spacing is not good with him, Melo and Chandler on the floor. Unfortunately STAT has no post game and is a subpar defender, if we're honest for one second he's not a good fit for the Woodson type of basketball and a bad addition to Melo and Chandler who are made for the half court game.
We can bend it and flip it upside down, at the end of the day the team is not well composed and there is a fundamental imbalance.
Miami are very good, no question, but our offense was very very very bad and we got exposed to the fullest. I mean we're talking about a Knicks team that failed to beat Toronto, Charlotte, Cleveland, Sacramento, New Orleans etc. our offense sucks. It's plain and simple.
Only changes we can make in the offseason are to build this team for Melo and try to get more front court depth. We need highly efficient players coming off the bench, a stopper, a rebounder, a scorer and a passer/ball handler. All good teams are build like that.
Amar'e/Melo/Chandler doesn't work. Lin or no Lin.
(And Lin himself is pretty much only a sophmore, Miami destroyed him in the regular season. He needs time himself to grow as a player and cut those turnovers down.)
I love Amar'e, but it's time to trade him. He's a D'Antoni player and simply has no post game. He can't play with Chandler or in any system that ain't run and gun (especially with no exceptional PNR PG).